Envelop



\ UNITED STATES PATENT oFFioE.

JOSEPH GRAY, OF RAYMOND, MISSISSIPPI.

ENVELOP.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,801, dated March 26, 1861.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH GRAY, of Raymond, in the county of Hinds andState of Mississippi, have invented a new and Improved Letter Bag orEnvelop for the Post- Ofiice Department; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1, is a perspective view ofmy in ventionin a closed state; Fig. 2, a perspective view of the same in an openstate; Fig. 3, a transverse section of the saine in a closed state; Fig.4, a detached perspective view of the address card.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

The obj ect of this invention is to supersede the ordinary paperenvelops which are used by postmasters for inclosingA a plurality ofletters addressed to one place, and which are distributed by thepostmaster of the oiiice where they are received.

The invention consists in the employment or use of a bag orenvelopconstructed of thin oil-cloth or other suitable material and providedwith elastic bands and an address card, all being arranged essentiallyas hereinafter Shown and described, whereby a number of letters may beinclosed and properly directed with the greatest facility, and the samebag or envelop, and also the same address card used indefinitely.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully understand and construct myinvention I will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a bag or envelop which may be constructed of thin oilcloth or other suitable material provided with a flap B. The form andconstruction of the bag or envelop is shown clearly in Fig. 2. Byreferring to this figure it will be seen that it is the saine in form asan ordinary paper letter envelop, instead however of being pastedtogether it is sewed-at least this would be the most preferable mode ofconstruction.

To the front side of the bag or envelop" there are attached two or moreelastic bands C, C, which encompass the envelop and also encompass anaddress card D, as shown in Fig. 1. This address card may be of stiffpaper with two holes a, a, made through it as shown in Fig. 4, for thebands C, C, to pass through. The card D, may have an address on eachside of it, see Fig. `1, in which New York is shown on the exposed side.of the card and Boston shown by dots on the inner side. The card D, isplaced on theflap side B of the bag or envelop and renders the samesecure or prevents it from casually opening.

The device is used as follows: When a number of letters for instance areto be sent to the Boston oice from New York, they are placed in one, ormore bags or envelops A, and the address D, attached thereto by thebands C, C, with the word Boston on the exposed or outer side. Thesesame bags may be filled at the Boston ofiice with New York letters andthe address card attached tovthem withthe word New York on the outside.

This invention may be adopted at a trifling cost, and will prove farsuperior to the ordinary paper envelops, as the letters may beexpeditiously put up and transmitted with greater safety than by the oldmode, and the address cards being of considerable size, the oldaddresses may be erased and new ones marked on when required.

Having thus described my invention I claim and desire to secure byLet-ters Patent.- As an improved article of manufacture a mail orpackage envelop composed of an envelop A, bands O and address card D,arranged as herein shown and described.

Jos. GRAY.

Vitnesses:

I. I. DRooNeooB, W. H. KERK.

